Skin Cancer, Melanoma: What Increases Your Risk

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What Increases Your Risk

Risk factors for melanoma include:³

• History of exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
  • Sun exposure is one of the most important risk factors for melanoma. Other factors, such as family history of melanoma, put you at higher risk, but exposure to the sun is the factor you can best control. Extensive exposure to the sun can occur during childhood, in jobs that require a person to work outside, and during outdoor activities.
  • UV exposure at tanning salons may be just as risky as sunbathing.²
• History of sunburns, especially during childhood.
• Previous melanoma or other skin cancer.
• Family history of melanoma or FAM-M syndrome.
• Atypical moles (dysplastic nevi).
• 50 or more moles at least across.
• White race, especially people who have fair skin that burns rather than tans, freckles, red hair, or blue eyes.
• Impaired immune system.
• Moles that are present at birth, especially if the moles are larger than (giant congenital melanocytic nevus).
• A rare inherited disease called xeroderma pigmentosum. This is a disease in which the body cannot repair damage to cells by UV radiation from the sun.
• PUVA treatment, used to treat skin conditions such as psoriasis.⁷

Last updated:	January 11, 2007
Author:	Shannon Erstad, MBA/MPH
Reviewed By:	Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine, Randall D. Burr, MD - Dermatology
Editors:	Kathleen M. Ariss, MS, Pat Truman, MATC